


Rocks Are a Man's Best Friend

by archangelgabe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: British Men of Letters, F/M, Falling In Love, Gift Giving, Kinda, Men of Letters, Mutual Pining, Well - Freeform, arthur ketch is a marginally better person, more like getting a crush on a girl and that girl gettign a crush on a guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26274373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archangelgabe/pseuds/archangelgabe
Summary: the prequel to Never Give a Werewolf a Knife
Relationships: Arthur Ketch/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	Rocks Are a Man's Best Friend

It took Ketch four days to start to enjoy Andrea’s company, which may be a new record. He can pinpoint the second that switch flipped from _just trying to recruit her_ to _okay this isn’t too bad_.

She gave him a rock that second morning after her run, saying that she almost fell into the river trying to get it. She wasn’t saying it in a weird “be grateful for what I’ve done for you” way, which is something Ketch appreciated. She was just telling the harrowing story of how she saw and obtained the rock.

Andrea was going to keep the rock for herself- it truly was a cool rock- but she changed her mind when she was cooling down, laying on the floor. Even though it was only four days into the hunt, he had learned that Andrea has a few odd behaviors, along with her being a bit of a control freak, too. For the most part, he didn’t mind. From her strict routine in the morning that if he interrupts it throws her off a bit too much to how she sometimes explains the task to herself as she does it, it’s fine. Weird, but fine. But not that morning. Seeing her lying on the floor brought out an anger within him that he didn’t quite understand. 

Why the hell was he angry at her for laying on the floor? She wasn’t in the way or anything. Just chilling. On the floor. On the goddamned floor.

_Then_ it struck Ketch that he’s really just having a bad day.

The look of annoyance that Ketch failed to hide clued Andrea in on it, too. 

So she got up from the floor and shyly set the rock down in front of him, just muttering the word, “Gift.”

And, good God, did Ketch love the gift.

He doesn’t understand why. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t get gifts. Maybe it’s because she saw he was already having a bad day and tried to make it better. Maybe it’s because he had figured out how much she likes rocks and she gave it to him when she very well could have kept it and added it to the collection she undoubtedly keeps. Whatever the case, it made his day.

That is when the switch flipped.

It flipped again from _okay this isn’t too bad_ to _friendship? perhaps_ a week later.

Between working the case, doing research, and everything else that comes with the job, Andrea tasked herself with getting to know Ketch, asking whatever invasive question came to mind at the moment. Ketch only put up with it because he’d get to be invasive back. They had built a solid foundation for a friendship. 

Ketch isn’t quite sure what happened. All he knows is that he actually found something she said funny, so he laughed. And then he kept laughing. And then he didn’t stop until there were tears in the corners of his eyes and his stomach hurt. When he finally stopped laughing, he saw Andrea in a new light.

Maybe she wasn’t just tolerable and occasionally annoying, but pretty okay to be around. Maybe her jokes were actually funny and her questions weren’t invasive. Maybe he didn’t want to recruit her to the British Men of Letters anymore. 

Ketch knows how terrible it is working for the Old Men and how it just sucks the life right out of you. Even for him. The fact that he hated working for them was realized a few days earlier when Andrea rolled her eyes at him for trying to recruit her and flat out said that they were using him, which really did get Ketch thinking.

Ketch thinks that the switch had flipped slowly. So slowly that he didn’t even register when it did. Maybe it started when she stood up for him when she called Dean to check in and, good God, Dean was not happy to find out she was hunting with _Ketch_ . Murder man Ketch. Dangerous, _British Man of Letters_ murder man Ketch. Despite the heavy emphasis on Ketch’s more unpleasant qualities, Andrea stood up for him telling Dean to lay off.

After that phone call, he did start being more friendly. He even gave her a cool rock that he found outside the police station. Ketch didn’t even realize the change he had made, but it was likely a good thing, considering that he and Andrea _clashed_ big time at the beginning. The new, friendlier dynamic was welcomed.

Then that final switch was flipped in that warehouse.

It didn’t hit Ketch for a few days that _another_ change had happened with how he felt about Andrea. It took a week and a half for him to come to terms with his feelings. Ketch refused to put a name or label on it. All he knew was that seeing her so hurt was something he never wanted to see again. That he cared far too much without even seeing it coming. That he wished he could’ve stayed.

Ketch found himself thinking about her far too often in the coming days. When he attempted the murder of the brothers Winchester, he almost felt guilty, knowing Andrea considers them her closest friends, but quickly pushed it away. It was just work. Just like that case with Andrea was just work. Work comes above all. Until it doesn’t.


End file.
